


Extra Help

by L0NE



Category: Fire Emblem Series, Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Canr really write gender neutral sexy times so it be like that, F/M, Gender Neutral Byleth, I love you jeritza call me back, M/M, They make out at the end
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-29
Updated: 2019-08-29
Packaged: 2020-09-29 11:54:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,247
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20435585
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/L0NE/pseuds/L0NE
Summary: Jeritza tried to jerk his hand back, but Byleth’s hold was concrete, and their pleading face had him frozen.He wanted to say no, but this was...





	Extra Help

**Author's Note:**

> i wrote this in one day. did not proofread it. did not even check to see if it made sense. just had the jeritza love syndrome

Jeritza was untalkative, had barely had any interests outside of combat, and blended into the hustle and bustle of the monastery fairly easily.

The only thing that brought him out of his shell was Byleth.

Granted, of course, he wasn’t any more open with the teacher than with anyone else, only exchanging a few words every now and then when the opportunity seemed alright. The difference was that now, Jeritza found himself watching them.

In the dining hall, in lectures, at the training grounds, outside the church, by the lake, so on. It wouldn’t be long— usually, his gaze would wander over to them for a few moments before he noticed he was staring and forced himself to look away— but rather he would capture small snippets of whatever the professor happened to be doing. In the dining hall, they were eating lunch with Marianne, trying to make her smile after a rough day. At the lake, they spent all of their free time fishing and filleting their catches, humming a song that Jeritza had never heard before. Sometimes, Jeritza would even spot them leaving their dorm room for the day with bed head, which they wouldn’t notice until they were at least a few feet from their doorway.

It got Jeritza out more. Usually, he spent the majority of his time in his room or training, but now he found himself drawn to unfamiliar places with the thought, _ Maybe that professor will be around here. _He couldn’t exactly explain the desire to see them— maybe it was because of how strong they were compared to other students their age, and a challenge always excited him, enough to make him keep tabs on them. They had never spared together before, so he was only going off of word of mouth, but he trusted what he heard around the monastery to be true.

(He had hinted at wanting to spar once before, but the professor only stared back at him in confusion— and Jeritza wasn’t sure if that meant they were against the idea or not. If they ever did cross weapons, he was fairly sure he wouldn’t be able to hold back, so perhaps it was better that way. He could wait until the time was right to act on his desire.)

In Jeritza’s eyes, their current relationship was perfect— speaking on occasion, trying to build a proper profile of their power, and watching them whenever they were near. Byleth knew nothing about him and he knew plenty about them, and that meant there would never be any complications.

Of course, if this newfound interest in Byleth made Jeritza a bit more open to the world around him, the professor was about to smash all the walls remaining for him to turn to.

“Jeritza, can you help me with this? I was so busy fishing I didn’t realize I had all these papers left to grade, and I’ve got class tomorrow.”

Byleth approached Jeritza in the dining hall with a stack of papers, trailing the scent of the lake behind them. It was the second time Byleth had ever initiated conversation first, the first time being when Byleth was introducing themself around the monastery upon their arrival. It was also the second time he had ever gotten so close to Byleth, and it made Jeritza suddenly very self aware of his own appearance. The professor’s hair was tied up and out of their face, small beads of sweat rolling down their forehead and neck, and their collar was slightly off— even though they were clearly more disheveled, Jeritza thought they looked much better than he did, but he couldn’t place why.

“Why are you asking that of me…?” Jeritza asked.

“Manuela is hungover and Hanneman is caught up in some other duties. I’d ask Catherine or Shamir, but they’re not too good with this stuff— they grade too harshly, so it intimidates the students,” they explained, unwarrantedly taking a seat when Jeritza hadn’t invited them to do so. This was now the longest exchange they ever had, and it wasn’t going to end soon. “But you’re pretty impartial to things, I’ve heard, so I figure you’d be able to do something good.”

“Is that so…”

Byleth nodded. “Yes. So? Are you in?” Then a pause. “Please say you’re in.”

It wasn’t as if Jeritza had much to do in the evenings, but he found himself thinking that prolonged contact with Byleth would be bad news, and a pain began to wedge itself into his chest. That was odd. It wasn’t as if he would slip up and do anything that would give him away, and yet…

“I don’t… I don’t think I’ll be able to,” he said, shooting up from the table.

Byleth grabbed his hand before he could pull himself away. “Please? You’re the only person left here I can count on,” they begged. Jeritza could feel the warmth of their hand through the glove he wore, and it made his head hurt. “If I do it myself, I’ll have to pull an allnighter, and then my lecture suffers, and Seteth will get mad at me. Two people makes the work go a lot faster!”

Jeritza tried to jerk his hand back, but Byleth’s hold was concrete, and their pleading face had him frozen.

He wanted to say no, but this was...

  


_____

  
  


Another minute of begging was all Byleth needed, and Jeritza caved in. He didn’t know why he was so weak to them— the thought of that in a literal way made him angry— but when the professor looked at him so distraught, he found that he couldn’t say no.

And so, after Jeritza finished his food, the two walked over to Byleth’s quarters to grade papers.

Jeritza was ushered in first, and found that Byleth’s room was large, and very, very neat. Much neater than he was expecting. There were only a handful of items that made it seem like it was lived in at all— A jacket that he had seen Jeralt wear once hung on the back of a chair, a small vase of flowers, and a drawing of Byleth hung up on their wall, but Jeritza wasn’t sure of its artist. Other than that, it was as plain as every other standard dorm room in the monastery.

Once he was in, Byleth closed the door behind them and got on the floor to pull something out from under their bed. It looked like a large wooden disc, but with a few hand movements, it turned out to be a foldable table, and they set it up so one end was facing their bed, and the other, the only chair in the room. Appropriately, Byleth took a seat on their bed, spreading out the papers they needed to look over in front of them. “Make yourself comfortable. Oh, but if you could pass me that jacket?”

Jeritza nodded, gently taking the jacket off of the chair before sitting in it, then reaching over to hand it to Byleth. In exchange for that act, Byleth handed them a red pen and a bundle of papers, draping the jacket over their shoulders. It was a strange choice fashion-wise, but the bit of tension that was in the dining hall over their predicament seemed to dissipate once they had it on. _ Sweet, _popped into Jeritza’s head, and before he could think on that any more, Byleth spoke. “Thank you. Let’s get to work. We should be done before it gets too dark.”

The sun took a long time to set in these months, so it wasn’t like Byleth was trying to say it was going to be a quick job. Nevertheless, Jeritza nodded and began to get to grading. The papers seemed to be short essays on battle tactics, with four one-paragraph long answers per question, asking how to fix a hypothetical battle scenario or describe how it would play out with the information given. Of course, any seasoned knight or merc would know the answers, and it was clear that the students were a bit out of their league. While some were giving correct answers, some were also off the mark by a bit, some were off by a lot, and one student had fallen asleep during their writing, judging by the ink suddenly going off the page.

Now, it may have been because Jeritza was a knight for so long, but he could grade these answers with his eyes closed, pointing out what every student needed to consider in their writing in the process. It made sense, for him at least, to occasionally steal glances at Byleth as they worked, seeing how he was going efficiently enough to warrant it. They were focused on the task at hand, eyebrows furrowed slightly as they scribbled on the paper they were currently grading, and their hair was still tied up from their fishing adventure earlier, only the tie was becoming more and more loose. Now their bangs were falling over their eyes— it made Jeritza want to brush them back, for some reason. His hand twitched.

“You’re staring,” Byleth said, the end of their pen in their mouth, the two of them an hour into their work.

“...Am I…?” Jeritza asked. The sound of their voice so suddenly startled him.

“Yes.”

“...I apologize.”

Byleth shook their head, small smile on their lips. “Don’t be. I mean, you do it enough, so I’m not expecting you to be sorry about it now.”

Jeritza froze. Did they just say…

The professor flipped over the paper they were reading, back into teaching mode. “Please don’t tell me you really thought I didn’t notice,” they said, as nonchalant as ever. “If I had gold for every time I spotted you watching me, I’d probably be rich by now.”

So they knew this whole time, but never said anything. Jeritza was sure they would never find out if he maintained a safe distance and tried not to look too often, but it seemed even those efforts fell short. Now, all of that was for nothing— in Byleth’s eyes, he probably just seemed like a pervert or stalker, he realized.

Yet they still invited him out, and said they trusted him, to the point of being let into their quarters…?

“Why…” Jeritza’s eyes shot down to the essay in front of him, and he busied himself so he wouldn’t stare at Byleth any more than he already had. But he could feel them looking at him through their bangs, and his lips tightened. “Why associate yourself with me… like this, then…?”

“Good question,” Byleth nodded, putting down their pen to readjust the “finished” pile of papers, which was about 15% of what they needed to complete that evening. “I guess it’s because I don’t really know your motives, so I don’t have any reason yet to be wary. I was hoping you’d tell me them yourself.”

Jeritza pondered that statement. His motives were _ what _ exactly? Even he wasn’t sure. Sure, he liked keeping tabs on Byleth’s strength, and that was why he initially began to trail them, but he couldn’t use that as an explanation for everything. After all, that didn’t explain why he had so easily agreed to help Byleth with their work, or why he spent a longer that average time observing their appearance, or… Anything, really, that involved something unrelated to battle. But he couldn’t just admit to that, so he just shook his head. “I wanted… to see how strong you are....”

“When I’m fishing? And reading in the library?” Byleth asked, listing two places where Jeritza often spotted them that definitely went against his reasoning.

“...Yes…”

“I see,” they put another paper in the finished pile, then bit down on the end of their pen again. “I don’t think I believe you.”

“What else could it…” Jeritza mumbled, but didn’t let himself finish. He didn’t want to make the situation worse by starting a back and forth— he had left his weaponry at the blacksmith’s for repair, so if things escalated too far and they were going to duke it out, he was woefully unprepared.

Byleth, however, wasn’t about to let it go so easily. “‘What else could it be’? You could be planning to kill me, or you want to hurt me, or maybe you hate me, or you have some kind of obsession with me, or…”

They put their free hand to Jeritza’s, and that head splitting warmth from before came back, making his face feel hot. 

“Maybe you like me.”

Just hearing that made him tense. He wanted to pull away, but found that he couldn’t. It was like he was glued in place, and he suddenly felt like his entire body was uncomfortably warm, like some part of him was burning, with the center point being Byleth’s fingers gently wrapping around his own. “When you think about that, isn’t that a likely explanation for your fixation?” They asked, their voice calm, but Jeritza was anything but. “I’ve always noticed you out of the corner of my eye, following me as if it were just second nature. Trying to cover it up with just one flimsy excuse when it’s obviously something so much more is… It’s like something out of a romance novel, you know? Kind of cheesy. Cliché.”

They let go of his hand, and he felt control coming back to him. “The stoic knight not realizing his own feelings.”

And they went back to grading. “That’s what I think, anyways.”

Then, silence.

It took a moment for Jeritza to process what had just happened, and he was completely dumbfounded. Speechless.

The small smile on Byleth’s face was an invitation— either he could pretend none of that happened just now, and they would go about their business, or he could continue down this brand new path and see where it took him. He was sure any outsider would immediately leave after such a bold display, but that pain in his chest was back, and his heart felt like it was having palpitations, and he could swear he was dying, but another part of him relished in that feeling. And he knew Byleth could give that to him, if he pressed on.

He readjusted his mask and took a deep breath. “...Is this really why you… sought me out?”

“Maybe.”

And now for the moment of truth.

“...Are these papers… really due tomorrow…?”

A palpable silence.

“...They aren’t.” Byleth responded after what felt like an eternity, voice soft. They weren’t looking up at him. 

“My next class isn’t for another two days.”

Jeritza remained still, pen in hand. 

He suddenly couldn’t focus on the words on the paper in front of him— 

and then, oh, Byleth took it away, as well as all the papers on the table, and set them aside on the floor in an orderly stack.

Then, the pen was gone from Jeritza’s hand, too, and the table was neatly folded away.

All that was left was Byleth sitting on their bed, 

and Jeritza sitting in front of them, 

and they shrugged their jacket off, hanging it off the bed post,

and then,

and then—

“Come.”

  
  
  
  
  
  


When the haze cleared, Jeritza was hungrily pushing Byleth down onto their bed, and their lips were against his own.

To be honest, he wasn’t sure what he was doing— he had never done this with anyone before, and never wanted to until now— but his desire and Byleth’s eagerness guided him proper. One of the professor’s hands were entangled in his hair, and the other was gripping at his shoulder, not pushing him away, but instead anchoring him to them, making sure he wouldn’t leave. With that kind of physical encouragement, Jeritza deepened their kiss, muffling a moan from Byleth underneath them.

This was liking someone, wasn’t it? Byleth was right before, and it made everything make so much sense now. The strange feelings in his chest, the need to find Byleth whenever possible, the warmth that was spreading through his entire body— that was more than wanting to size up the competition. 

And it was enthralling to see the result of this discovery— Byleth underneath them, lips parted in all their immorality, beckoning him to embrace them. They hadn’t started their session prim and proper, he was sure, but that didn’t matter to him one bit— there was something about the debauchery that just made him want to keep going. He didn’t feel like stopping now that he had this new experience under is belt. The professor’s lips were chapped, and their tongue tasted slightly sweet, like the desserts he would see one of their students toting around. Jeritza wasn’t too much of a fan of sweet things, but he found that he didn’t hate the flavor when it was like this, teasing him ever so slightly. It was addicting to brush past it and catch a hint of that flavor, if just for a fleeting moment.

Jeritza didn’t want to slow the pace. He went from tugging at Byleth’s bottom lip to kissing at their skin right above their collar. Jeritza brought his tongue over the area, not minding at all the taste of the sweat on their neck. He wasn’t sure why, but he almost found that even more attractive. Byleth’s breath hitched at the wet sensation, but when he decided to bite down slightly, they reflexively pulled at Jeritza’s hair, making an odd sensation zip through his body and pool in his stomach. “T-That’s…! Jeritza…!” They stifled a moan.

Oh, he wanted to hear more of that. He _ needed _to hear more of that. He tried again, slightly harder this time, on a different spot, and Byleth nearly jumped out of their skin with an even more sensual cry. 

Both of his hands, which had stayed on either side of Byleth’s head up until this point, now began to caress the teacher, using one hand to stroke their cheek and the other to gently rub their shoulder as he continued to leave love bites over their neck. The slight roll of Byleth’s hips against his was so tempting, and he would be lying if he tried to say it wasn’t making him feel anything, but he wasn’t exactly sure how far they were going to go tonight. Reciprocation of such an act made him feel like he was getting full of himself, responding big-headed to a human reflex.

Just as he was thinking this, Byleth grabbed him by the chest and pushed him up, forcing him to part from them. It startled him slightly, and he worried for a second if he had taken things too far.

“So help me,” they panted, lips trembling. “if you don’t start stripping me soon, I’m going to go insane.”

A pause.

“...Please,” they added, looking away. “You’re better than I thought you’d be.”

Jeritza wiped at the corner of his mouth. “That… sounds like you have been thinking of this for… quite some time.”

Byleth froze. So much for the confidence from before— now they looked utterly embarrassed.

“...I-I have. Thought about it. Quite a lot,” they spat out. A pause. 

Then, they looked away, “You know, I wouldn’t have called you in to begin with if I hadn’t had any interest in you myself, right?”

Jeritza’s heart felt like it was soaring.

Yes, he did like them. He liked Byleth a lot. 

“...What else did you have in mind, then…?”

  
  


**Author's Note:**

> AND THEN THEY FUUUUUUUUUCKED


End file.
